Lugbe, a suburb of Nigeria’s Federal capital, has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Abuja, Mrs Jummai Danuk, Capacity Development Officer for SURE-P said.

She made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja at a sensitisation on HIV testing and counselling held in Lugbe.

The campaign was jointly organised by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). Its aim was to encourage the residents to embrace voluntary HIV/AIDS testing.

The campaign witnessed a large turnout.

Danuk, who represented Dr Sebastian Wakdok, Project Director, NACA/SUPE-P HIV/AIDS programme, said Lugbe was chosen for the campaign due to the Prevalence Surveillance Survey conducted in the area recently.

She said: “We needed to take the treatment to the grassroots; Lugbe is the ideal place because it is along the expressway which makes it easy to access the satellite villages.

“The Prevalence Surveillance Survey shows that Lugbe has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS along the axis; this informed our choice of coming to Lugbe for the exercise.

Danuk said due to stigma attached to the disease, Lugbe communities had not felt the impact of what development partners were doing in area of access to services for treatment..

She said the FCT ranks number eight in states with the highest HIV prevalence in Nigeria and attributed the development to its cosmopolitan nature.

“The influx of people from other states have adverse effects on HIV/AIDS prevalence in the FCT,’’ Danuk said.

She said that prevention was important in the fight against HIV/ AIDS or any other disease, adding that it was necessary that an individual should know his status irrespective of age, sex and social status.

Danuk expressed concern that foreign donors assisting Nigeria in the fight against the disease were leaving the country as they no long classify HIV as a serious issue.

Speaking earlier Mr Micah Jiba Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council represented by Mrs Josephine Nneme Supervisory Councilor for Health commended NACA and SURE-P for considering Lugbe for the free medical outreach